Podesta emails

2016 U.S. presidential election
Timeline General election debates Parties Polling national statewide by demographics international Newspaper endorsements primary general Russian interference Russia investigation origins counter-narrative Media coverage Social media International reactions Electors Recounts Faithless electors Vote count
Republican Party
Primaries Candidates Debates and forums Polling national statewide straw polls Endorsements Results Nominee VP candidate selection Convention
Democratic Party
Primaries Candidates Debates and forums Polling national statewide straw polls Endorsements Results Nominee VP candidate selection Convention superdelegates
Third parties
Third-party and independent candidates Libertarian Party primaries debates nominee convention Green Party primaries debates nominee convention Constitution Party primaries nominee Reform Party primaries nominee American Solidarity Party Maturen Independents McMullin
Related races
House Senate Governors
← 2012 2016 2020 →
v t e

In March 2016, the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, was compromised in a data breach accomplished via a spear-phishing attack, and some of his emails, many of which were work-related, were hacked. Cybersecurity researchers as well as the United States government attributed responsibility for the breach to the Russian cyber spying group Fancy Bear, allegedly two units of a Russian military intelligence agency.^[1]

Some or all of the Podesta emails were subsequently obtained by WikiLeaks, which published over 20,000 pages of emails, allegedly from Podesta, in October and November 2016.^[2] Podesta and the Clinton campaign have declined to authenticate the emails.^[3] Cybersecurity experts interviewed by PolitiFact believe the majority of emails are probably unaltered, while stating it is possible that the hackers inserted at least some doctored or fabricated emails. The article then attests that the Clinton campaign, however, has yet to produce any evidence that any specific emails in the latest leak were fraudulent.^[4] A subsequent investigation by U.S. intelligence agencies also reported that the files obtained by WikiLeaks during the U.S. election contained no "evident forgeries".^[5]

Podesta's emails, once released by WikiLeaks, shed light on the inner workings of the Clinton campaign, suggested that CNN commentator Donna Brazile had shared audience questions with the Clinton campaign in advance of town hall meetings, and contained excerpts from Hillary Clinton's speeches to Wall Street firms. Proponents of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory falsely claimed the emails contained coded messages which supported their conspiracy theory.^[6][7]